Giving Voice to Good Ideas

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Here's the presentation I gave at this year's Lean Startup Conference:

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4 Misapplications of The Lean Startup and How You Can Avoid Them

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 I co-authored this article with Ben Hafele and it was first published on the  Lean Startup Co. Blog . Recently, Sanchin Rekhi published “The 4 Major Problems With the Lean Startup Methodology”. His article shares a critique of Lean Startup based on his own startup experience. He summarizes the method’s problems this way: It encourages agnostic experimentation instead of starting with a compelling strategy It stresses the need for minimum viable products (MVPs), which can lead to failing too fast It results in developing incremental products, not product innovations It overemphasizes product development instead of a deliberate focus on growth It would have been better if Sanchin had titled his article “4 Misapplications of the Lean Startup”, as the four problems above are clearly not a result of  Lean Startup itself, but rather are driven by misconceptions about it. In this post, we’ll respond to these misapplications by sharing best practices so you can avoid these mista...
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Top 10 Lessons from Steve Jobs' Legacy

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I just finished reading Steve Job's biography by Walter Isaacson which I highly recommend.  I like top 10 lists so I compiled the biggest lessons I took away from his impressive accomplishments: 1.      Put Design First Most companies design around engineering constraints.   At Apple, design was first, like designing the computer case first and having engineering make the components fit.   I thought of the many times I’ve heard designers get pushback on their designs because of “feasibility issues”.   If we’re going to create great products, let’s rise up to the challenge of figuring out how to implement the best designs we can think of with a can-do attitude. 2.      Put Products Before Profits Steve Jobs’ describes his passion as “to build an enduring company where people were motivated to make great products.   Everything else was secondary.” There are numerous examples where Apple put products befo...
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Decision Making Modes

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This article was first published on LinkedIn . In organizations, one of the most common complaints you’ll hear about is decision making. These include some variants of decisions taking too long to be made, poor decisions being made, or the right people not being consulted. Ironically, because we are all intimately involved in decision-making processes (as drivers of decisions or stakeholders), we all play a part in the problem we're complaining about! So how can we shift from just complaining about poor decision making to doing something about it? A great framework to learn and use in your work life is Decision Making Modes. Decision Making Modes define the approach decision drivers engage with their stakeholders. The five decision modes are: Tell, Sell, Test, Consult, and Join. As illustrated in the diagram above, the level of collaboration between the decision driver and her stakeholders increases as you move from left to right. One immediate benefit for a ...
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